Who Will Be America’s Next Top Oprah?

All across these great United States, stay-at-home moms are heaving a deep sigh of relief. Oprah may be gearing up to leave her unbelievably popular daytime talk show in September 2011, but don’t worry: She’s not going to leave her loyal viewers high and dry. Ms. O will be naming a successor, and she’ll do it the 21st-century way — via reality TV competition. The Mark Burnett-produced Your Own Show: Oprah’s Search for the Next TV Star won’t debut until January, but we’ve decided to give Her Oprahness a hand in selecting the finalists. Our picks for O’s replacement are after the jump. Add your suggestions in the comments.

Tyra Banks
Ms. Tyra is, of course, the obvious choice to replace Oprah. She’s spent her entire career training for it, after all. Back in the day when she was a young model and sometime Will Smith foil on Fresh Prince, Tyra was also a youth correspondent on Oprah. Last year, the ladies teamed up again for an episode on teen relationship violence. And between her TV shows, recent book deal, and modeling, this savvy businesswoman has built her Bankable brand into a mini-Harpo Productions. We know Tyra has shut down her talk show, but we wonder if perhaps she’s pulling a Sarah Palin: getting out of one commitment to focus on training for something much bigger.